Preschool with Bo {Little Hands Update}

A few of you are anxious for an update on Little Hands to Heaven with Bo, so I thought I should let you know that we are reading the books and keeping it very simple!

He enjoys playing with cars on the masking tape letters.

He loves the hide-and-seek.

He mostly loves being read to!

I made a play center for him with all of his favorite learning toys (that I kept up so they would be special).

And he is not only playing, but learning to put things away! :)

Every now and then I offer him a craft to go along with a Bible story, but I mostly keep it simple. Here Bo and Elli are making a Fiery Furnace craft - a fun idea from my friend Lisa ~ see her super cute Fiery Furnace Craft for directions and links!

If you want more inspiration, please check out my Bible Crafts Pinterest board!

In other news, it pretty much rained all of June and July feels a lot like June should be, but we are enjoying the sunshine and cool summer weather. Bo is loving it, especially.

I also started Before Five in a Row again and I can't keep up with Bo. He asks me daily to do "more stool." All I heard this week and last is "more My Blue Boat." Before that it was "more Yellow Ball." :)

Just so you know, I've been on a quest to simplify my homeschool, and I needed to simplify my blogging to do that. I have to post once a week to be on the Crew, but I will be back to regular blogging in August. :)

Hope you are having a wonderful summer! Enjoy it! August is right around the corner! Eeep! I'm getting excited for a fresh new school year and will have lots to share!

25 comments

I am in that same place. It is hard to work on simplifying. It seems to take all my energy from anything else. I keep getting interrupted in my planning and then lose momentum. I am curious to know how your simplified plan will look. Right now my simple looks as crazy busy as before so I am not doing a good job of simplifying.

Loved the way the fiery furnace craft turned out! I'm going to have to check that out for my little ones. I've been feeling a little guilty about dropping LHTH, but my littles just weren't very interested. They enjoyed it, but weren't in love with it, so we've went back to more seasonal and interest led activities. I'm about to reintroduce the alphabet in a more crafty way :-)

I thought about getting Little Hands for my 3-year-old but knew he wouldn't be interested in the activities very long. My daughter is doing Beyond for first grade so that's why I was considering it - I love the way Heart of Dakota is set up. : ) Before 5 in a Row might be a little more up his alley since it is story-centered. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on that! It doesn't really cover the alphabet, though, does it?

I checked out in my library to see how many of the B4FIAR books they have...let's just say I can only do 9 of the books in the volume. So i'm a bit bummed. But if we space out our row and mix it with other things, I might still be able to do it. He did the new Essentials Skills online program we are reviewing...he completed an entire section and BEGGED for more. He was so proud of his certificate AND that he got one before his brother. LOL! So this is working well and I will use it since it is.

Looks like great things are still happening in your homeschool! I'm learning that being flexible and willing to change my plan doesn't mean I have failed at my original plan, it just means I'm willing to change to work with what my child needs at the time. The beauty of homeschool! I think our kids also pick up on our energy. If we've lost interest in something, they will too. I'm excited to see your posts about B4FIAR!

I love that you are so willing to go with what your children need rather than trying to finish a curriculum just because you started it. I am trying to simplify our homeschool as well, but am not having much success. I keep finding new things that I want to add to our days instead of finding things I can let go of!

I'm going to be doing B4 this year with my 4 y/o, I always come here for inspiration from your past rows, can't wait to see what you're doing with Bo. I always love seeing your pictures, you do a great job of capturing memories. I wanted to tell you also that I started doing Project Life scrapbooking after reading some of your posts earlier this year. I love it! It has made something I used to think was impossible for me a reality, so thanks for that!

I hope you have a lovely and relaxing summer, and look forward to reading your posts in the upcoming school year :)

I love the "not interested" picture! Love that you're slowing down, us too, always lol, reading really is the most important, isn't it!? I love the random, let's do a Bible craft, idea! Sounds like something I should try! Hope you're having a great summer, love the new blog look!

I think little ones, from my experience, love "doing" school and then burn out more easily. I find it helpful to stop programs and give them a break and then come back after a short break. Usually the enthusiasm is built back up again.

I am also anxiously waiting to see what you are going to do to simplify homeschool. You know I've been trying to go that route for a couple years. Even more so this year. This year I hope to simplify enough at home to get out and about more to homeschool events in our community on a regular basis. I really, really want to aim for this and I NEED it to work.

I like the area you set up with Bo's learning manipulatives. I am going to try this here for Jesse. A very good idea to play and work on cleaning up at the same time. Thank you for sharing that!

Oh, Michelle, you are so wonderful to keep up FIAR. I truly pray you will have the energy and desire to keep going with it because I know it makes such wonderful memories.

I always enjoy your updates- I love that you go with your little one's interest. That is such a precious age to revel in the learning process. I miss Before Five in a Row. I am trying to think of ways I can do some of it with my grandkids.

Sorry to hear that LH didn't work out, but I'm so glad you are both enjoying BFIAR. It's been a pull for me to try it this year, but I think we're going to wait until next year. I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Hi MichelleWe're a homeschooling family from South Africa. Your blog is a real inspiration and I usually have many eyes peeping over my shoulder, enjoying the photos with me. I love the B4FIAR and FIAR concept and have tried to do my own country studies for my children with beautiful picture books I can source following a similar idea. I cannot easily get many of the resources that you use or the shipping costs make many overseas resources impractical (that is one way to simplify life...have less stuff to choose from!) I have tried to find stories for us to enjoy that focus on the Southern Hemisphere as well.There are three wonderful stories that just lend themselves to your delightful learning moments that you may enjoy with your children over your summer break. Dogger, by Shirley Hughes is well loved by many children as the awards it has received would confirm. Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams is set in Malawi and Jamela's Dress by Niki Daly is from our own colorful country and always makes me smile oh and there is another by Australian author, Mem Fox that is so touching:Wifrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. Our family has enjoyed these and maybe there are other families who would like meet some new children and visit some far away countries.

Hi Lindsey, I think B4FIAR is going to be perfect for Bo because it is so story book centered! It does not cover the alphabet, but I am using All About Reading Pre-Reading with Bo and he is loving it! It is so simple and he enjoys the activities and book - and of course Ziggy the Zebra. I will share soon how I am using this with Bo, since he is just 3 1/2, but so far it is a perfect fit to go along with B4FIAR!

Thank you, Rachel! It was hard to think that my well laid out plans were not going to work, and hard to not finish what I started, but yes! I don't want to finish just because I started if it isn't what is best. Seeing that more and more with what we are doing now! So excited you will be doing B4 too! I'm really excited to share, but taking my time to make the time to do so - summer is going by too fast as it is! And YAY! for doing Project Life! I'm so far behind, but really want to make time for it to catch up. So happy you are!

Thank you, Amy! I am enjoying summer - too much! I really needed it, though need more energy to do all that I hoped to accomplish. I'm excited to be on a new path with Bo - think I will have to always keep an open mind when it comes to him (and an open schedule!). :)

That's a really great point about little ones - I think you are right - go go go! then crash! I need to remember to take breaks and think I can do that more naturally with B4FIAR - since it does not have a schedule of any sort. :)

Thank you, Susana! I do hope to have the energy! Trying not to over plan - in fact, I'm not sure I will have a plan - except to row when I feel like it and just do the basics in between. I don't know yet! I'm not ready that's for sure!

Julie, simple so far means combining my 9th and 10th graders for more subjects and letting Malachi be more independent (I think I mentioned this to you recently about Veritas lightening my load, but I am so far behind on replying to comments on the blog). I need to find a way now to add more structure to our day - to find that rhythm that works for us. Praying for sure!

Hi Michelle! I am so encouraged by your desire for a more simple homeschool next year. IAm also hoping for a more simple year. After planning our years curriculum, when it came time to do order our books,I decided against doing LHTH with Gefen. I think it looks so fun, yet I decided not to order the book since we have all BFIAR books and manual. We will do a weekly row with Gefen and also ABC Animal printouts. Also a sensory activity and craft once a week...just simple. That's what I love about homeschooling, we can change curriculum anytime we feel it doesn't work for us.